Caves of Sorrow: Jayne's Account
Account of Jayne Darrengard, Stalwart Hammer of Tempus: Approximately 4 days prior to this writing, a single member of an expedition group that left camp returned with word of missing miners and captured party members in a cave in the west. His report was vague but he spoke of poisonous creatures and at least one casualty. A search party of six, including myself, volunteered to attempt to retrieve the missing individuals. The cave, which is now being called the Cave of Sorrws (a fitting name for the events that occurred within) is approximately 36 hours travel from the campsite with one night’s rest. Back in town we were able to ascertain a recipe for an antidote to the poison we might encounter in the cave and during our travel, made sure to search for ingredients. The recipe is as follows: Materials: Blue spotted mushrooms, basil, lavender. Directions: '''Grind the ingredients and mix with clean water. Boil them into a salve to neutralize the effects of this particular poison. '''Effects: Within an hour of application, the antidote should cure the poison. Within the cave the body of a member from the previous expedition was discovered only a few hundred feet from the entrance, having been eviscerated by a roper. Further inside, creatures one member of the group named “chitterers” descended from webs on the ceiling. Also of interest as we delved further into the cave traveling east, we stumbled upon a religious symbol (a five-pointed star in a circle) drawn in blood. I did not recognize the symbol but made a note of it and will attempt to research it further (or find someone who is more apt at such endeavors). The cave itself is a straightforward path for the first few hundred feet before opening up into a large space that leads north and south. Our party traveled north and found the three missing adventurers bound in webbing and stuck to the ceiling. The southern portion of the cave has yet to be explored. The creature that captured the missing adventurers appeared to be a slightly larger, more developed version of the “chitterers” we’d seen. While the creature was slain and the three missing adventurers retrieved, our group did suffer a casualty. We lost a good man to the chitterers. Roy was a valiant fighter who did not shy away from combat and he died an honorable death, defending the rest of the party. It was a good, clean kill and he did not suffer long. I suspect around here, that is the best a soldier can hope for and if I were to die on this island it shall also be with my weapon drawn and the bodies of my enemies at my feet. Along with the rescued adventurers, we brought Roy’s body back to the camp to be properly buried. Creature Notes: Chitterer 1: * Medium size, 3 attacks with dagger-like appendages * No poisonous effects discerned * Two legs, four arms, glowing yellow eyes. Baby Chitterers: ''' * 1 biting attack that can deal significant damage. * No poisonous effects discerned. * Travel in clumped groups. '''Chitterer 2: * Medium size, can shoot webbing, solitary dagger attack. * Poisonous. * Speaks in a garbled language Immeral can understand.